By CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB
Jason Sudeikis plays his college track coach, Larry Snyder, who once qualified to participate in the 1924 Olympics but missed going. Jesse learns to become an elite athlete in Coach Snyder’s hands, learning to tune out racist epithets and concentrating only on the task at hand.
The coach learns quite a lot from Jesse, as well, witnessing how he copes with racist attitudes and pushes through to his goals. Adding calm and balance to his life is Jesse’s girlfriend, Ruth Solomon, played by the lovely Shanice Banton. Indeed, Jesse and Ruth Owens’ three daughters read the script for this film and gave their full support to the production.
The action starts in the Black community in Cleveland where we meet Jesse’s parents, the women Ruth works with at a salon, and Jesse and Ruth’s little daughter Gloria. When Jesse attends Ohio State University the contrast to his home community is stark, living in a black student dorm and being bullied in the locker room by white football players. Yet, Jesse has the right attitude to survive that era.
Cut away to the debate about U.S. participation in the 1936 Olympics. Jeremy Irons plays Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Association, and William Hurt plays Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, the new president of the Amateur Athletic Union. The two led opposing views about participation: an American boycott of the games would make a statement, but it would also disappoint the athletes and fans.
Brundage travels to Berlin to seek assurances that the Nazis will not refuse the Olympic participation of people of other races or religions. The German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl meets him and helps interpret when Goebbels arrives. Riefenstahl served Goebbels’ purposes creating Nazi propaganda films, but, at the same time, she made sure the Olympic games got recorded on film for all the world to see.
This is a wonderful film about an important moment in history. The costumes and production values are perfect. The stadium in Berlin is filled with 110,000 people for the Olympics, thanks to the magic of CGI. The effect is staggering. We all know how this story turned out, but it is fun to watch it unfold on the screen.
Race is rated PG-13 “for thematic elements and language.” It is a film reminding us of an era of discrimination that often led to violence and death. Young people should be brought to see this film to ensure our civilization never repeats such atrocities.
